Shimla: From British summer capital to future smart city

This Storymap is part of our wider research project on Learning from Small Cities, and reports on Shimla, India.

Shimla, a city of about 170,000 people, is a picturesque hill station nestled in the Himalayan foothills. It was the summer capital of the British Empire (1864-1945) when the colonial administration made the long arduous journey annually from Delhi in the plains to the Himalayan hill-station. Shimla was also the capital of Punjab state in the years following independence in 1947.

The inclusion of Shimla into India's 100 Smart City Mission marks a crucial moment in the city's imagination of reconciling its imperial history and cultural heritage with its new identity as ‘clean, serene and vibrant’. In this storymap report we present the lessons from Shimla through the themes of imagining, governing, and living urban futures.

Scroll down the interactive site to read more or click below